Winters in Russia, especially in the North, can be VERY cold, so the common folk needed to make strong durable, and warm houses. Warmth was the main thing that you would want to get from a house. The Russians, at this point, used only wood for building houses. Stone was only used for some churches and some palaces. Why? Because stone is a very good conductor, while wood isn't. So a wooden house will be the same temperature year around; while a stone house will be very warm in the summer, but very cold in the winter. Unfortunately for us, wooden houses are also less durable than stone ones, so no houses have survived from the time of Kievan Rus' to the modern day. However, the Russian tradition of building log houseswas passed down from generation to generation; so several 18th and 19th century versions still do exist. The Slavs could have built houses from animal furs and skins, also called yarangas. But yarangas just aren't Slavic; they were built by other civilizations. Besides the fact that 30 deer hides are needed to make a yaranga for one person! It's no wonder that carpentry was considered the most respectable occupation for common folk (Blacksmiths took second place, while potters were third . Of course, fire was a occupational hazard for dwellers of wooden homes; but the benefits outweighed the dangers.

There were two main types of houses in Kievan Rus' One was a log house, called an izba. The other was a framed house, called an hata. The izba was technologically superior to the hata, possibly because the izba was used in the colder north, and the hata was used in the warmer south. The izba was usually bigger than the hata; izbas built in the south was also smaller than their northern counterparts. Let's take a closer look at each kind.

Izba

The izba was the standard housing of much of the north; everyone, from the smerds (serfs) to the Grand Prince himself, lived in one (though sizes did vary). Izbas were built in either the shape of a square or a rectangle. Ropes, knives, spades, and axes were the traditional and simple tools used for constructing izbas. Nails and saws were not used back then, as metal was not a cheap material. The izba were made from split pine trunks and the space between the logs were stuffed with river clay. The entire house could be put together using only an axe. To make sure that dwellers would be healthy and prosperous, coins, frankincense, and wool, would traditionally be buried beneath the corners of the izba. Izbas was well built and warm, often nicely decorated on the outside with wooden carvings on the walls, on the gables, and around the windows (the carvings often revolved around folklore and symbolism).

Any izba, big or small, had three main parts. First, you'd enter the main room. Off the side from the room was a thin corridor. Off the side of the corridor was the extra room, called a klet. It was used as a extra room in the summer and as a storage room for crates and such in the winter. In the big room was a stone ochar, a Turkish word meaning "hearth" (brick ovens, which are typical of many Russian paintings, films, and cartoons, did not appear until the 15th century). The hearth, which was the center of the whole house, was fueled by wood. There was no chimney; they wouldn't appear until the 17th century. Instead, the smoke would warm the room before exiting through the main door; this method was called "heating the house po chornomu" (by black in Russian, called so because the smoke would live black stains on the walls and ceiling). A izba heated this way was known as a kurnaia izba. Unfortunately, the amount of smoke in the roof left soot all over the ceiling; resulting in the tops of logs in the izba becomes covered in soot as well. To avoid soot falling on people, a series of shelves called polavochniki were set up around the internal perimeter of the izba; so the top would be sooty, but the bottom would be clean. In the 13th century, small holes were cut in the walls and later in the ceiling; this type of chimney was called a dymovolok. Wooden horizontal chimneys called "bobpi", only began to appear in the 17th century.

The ceiling was made of halved logs, which were laid on a massive beam called a matichu. The ceiling was then covered with clay. The matichu was fitted with a ring, on which could be hung cradles and such. The walls were whitewashed and then covered with planks from linden or other trees. The floor was just tramped-down earth, which would become very hard over time. The reason for earthen floors was that floor boards were hard to make at that time, and so were very expensive. Wooden floors first appeared in rich houses in the 15th century. There were also no windows; they also first appear in rich houses in the 15th century. Instead, izbas had little openings called okonsta for light inlet and smoke outlet. Some okonsta were covered in cow bladder or stomach. Okonstas could had shutters when necessary; this was the so-called "volokoviie okonsta". The door was made by halving logs and chipping them. The roof was made from wooden boards or wooden shingles. The boards were laif out vertically and closely fit in a horizontal log called a skied. On the top of the roof was the ohlupen, a V-shaped pole often having its ends craved into the head of a prince (called a kniaziok) or a horse (called a koiok). At night, torches were lit in the izba; though most people went to bed as soon as night fell. If someone needed to stay up late, they would use clay lamps for light; these were fueled with animal fat or vegetable oil. Wax candles, stationed on brass candlesticks, were also used.

All types of izbas, be they built on the earth or be they dugouts, were surrounded by a yard, which was in turn surrounded by either a wattle fence (known as a pleten) or a paling fence (known as a tyn). Such fences would line the streets in both residential and industrial areas in Russian towns. To enter, you would walk through the gate, which was about two meters long. In towns and cities, the gate sometimes had a gabled roof over it. The yard, which was a unit of taxation in Kievan Rus', was a separate property under one owner. Neighbors would often bicker about the varying sizes of their properties. To accommodate this, the Russkaya Pravda provides punishment to anyone who "built palings across the yard boundaries". In the yard would be built gardens, barns, stables, sheds (some for drying sheaves of wheat), deep hidden pits (for storing grain), or, most importantly a bania (Russia sauna)!

Furniture in the izba consisted of benches, chairs, chests, tables, and shelves. Rich boyars and merchants would often have their furniture decorated with elaborate carvings, especially their chairs. Tables were often covered in homespun lace tablecloths. Washstands with copper ewers filled with water and bowls were used for washing up (In his autobiography, John, Bishop of Novgorod, tells of how he caught the devil using such a jug). People slept in izbas either on the benches or on the floor. The head of the house slept in the choice spot: next to the hearth. Women and children slept to the right of the entrance. At the entrance slept domestic animals, such as pigs. Beds were not introduced to poorer Russian households until the 19th century; and even then, it was mostly used for decoration. Many craftsmen would also set up their respective shops in their izbas. As a person got richer, his izba, and the furniture in it, became all the more decorated and elaborate. Although so-called "white" izbas were introduced in the 17th century, kurnaia izbas were still being built into the 19th and even the early 20th century.

There were three sub-parts in the main room of the izba. The woman's corner, also called the kut, was opposite the furnace. The male corner, also called the konik, was at the entrance. The red corner, however, was different from the rest. It was where the Orthodox icons were placed. The red corner, also called the front corner, was built at the far corner of the eastern side of the house and toward the horizon. This particular corner had two windows built into each wall, so it was the most illuminated part of the izba. The red corner was positioned in such a way that it was the first thing you noticed when you entered the room.

In the red corner was a table, called a big table. Along the wall next to the table was placed a second table, called a straight table. A bench was placed next to the big table, called a big bench. At the big table and on the big bench sat the master of the house. The place were he sat was called the big place (okay, so it's not original). All the other family members sat at the big table by order of age. If there was not enough space for everyone at the big and straight tables, then a third table would be brought in and placed at the corner of the straight table. The third table was called a crooked table (seriously?).The big bench was the seat of honor in the house. Guests were offered the chair when they came to visit; however, they were to traditionally refuse it. If you were a priest, of course, then you wouldn't have to refuse it; it would have been your right to sit in the bench of honor! The lowest seat at the crooked table was called the polatni plank, due to it being located right under the ceiling planks, on which the polat, a type of upper bunk-bed, was laid. In the bylinas and legends, the Russian bogatyrs would often sit at the polatni plank before being moved by the Grand Prince to a place of honor on account of their heroic deeds and feats.

Izbas were usually built on the ground, but they sometimes were built on oak logs, large rocks or tree stumps. In the winter, the legs were buried in soil to increase the warmth inside the house. During the summer and in some places in the spring, the legs would be excavated; the wind blowing under the house would provide ventilation for those inside. Izbas built before the 13th century were a semi-dugout, since they were one-third buried in the ground, the depth being three or fours rows (of thick logs) deep, or about 40-70 centimeters. Those early izbas were square-shaped, being about 3 to 4 meters on one side; their roofs were made from straw, over which was a layer of earth. There was originally no door; just a small opening 0.9-1 meter tall. The opening was hidden by two log halves tied together and the overhanging roof. Only in the north around Novgorod and Pskov did the Slavs build izbas above ground. They copied it from the native Finnic tribes; eventually, the idea caught on all around Rus'.

By the 9th and 10th century, izbas had become standardized. The floor space could be anywhere between 12.4 by 12.8 feet to 18 by 19.7 feet (though the average length of a square building was about 14.8-26.4 feet. An izba of about 161.4 to 323 sq. ft. could only hold about 5-6 people comfortably. Not all classes would lived in izbas, however. Kholop craftsmen still lived in semi-pit and pit dwelling. Freemen and rich people, however, never lived in pit dwellings; only wars, fires, and other disasters would force them to do so.

If your izba had any more than three rooms, then it was no longer called an izba. It was now called a horoma, or mansion! The boyar's izba wasn't much different from that of the poor, other than the fact that it was much larger! The palace of the Grand Prince and other princes was the biggest and the most elaborately constructed building in the entire city. This building, which was situated completely inside the city walls, was composed of a court. A court was basically several closely-built buildings, most at least two stories high. The buildings were sometimes connected by galleries. Most of the building were not very big; the two biggest parts were the gridnista and the terem. The gridnista, also called the seni, was the headquarters for the Grand Prince and his druzhina, or retinue. The gridnista served as a sort of hall between the houses. Here the prince would host banquets with his druzhina and receive visitors. The seni was also the location of the prince's throne. The terem, often situated on the second floor of a building, was eirther a high tower or attic of some sort. Here the prince's wife and female part of the household lived (the Russian word "tepem" comes from the Greek word for room or possibly from the Persian word for tent or gallery, tarem). Do note, however, that the tepem was in no way a restricted area. Another name for the towers and private attics in the city was vezha. Boyar, and especially royal horomas, were often well stocked in food an drink. When a boyar named Sudislav's horoma was raided, the pillagers found all sort of goods, including "wine and fruit, and fodder, and spears, and arrows". Originally, the prince's house was also made of wood; but by the 10th century, the prince's palace began to be built from stone. By the 11th century, boyars also began to make their houses from stone, which could come to match the richness of the princely dwellings. Rich wooden houses were often brightly painted and had elaborate carvings on the exterior, especially on the walls. Besides dwellings, a horoma also enclosed a special building for storing honey, cellars, banias, and even jails! These jails, called porubs, were dark in nature. A porub was a building with a latticed window on the roof. Captured or rebelling princes or boyars were often guests at the porub, instead of at the common jail. Prisoners were stored in the dungeons, over which a wooden roof was built. Food was passed to the inmates through the small window. There was no door; to add or remove prisoners, the roof had to be taken apart! Prisoners were usually kept in chains; and to make matter worse, the prince often forget about his captives! Some porubs, however, did have doors, and a ladder was needed in order to climb down to the prison. At night the door would be locked and the ladder removed. Surrounded by a strong paling or wattle fence with sharpened stakes at the top, a rich horoma was not easy to break into. But this wasn't just for enemies; the Russkaya Pravda states that if a kholop attacked a freeman, he could run for sanctuary to a boyar horoma.

Hata

The hata, unlike the izba, was built for hot summers and mild winters. It also played on the fact that wood is scarce in Central and Southern Russia and in Ukraine. Hatas were used in by southern and western Slavs and were usually built in modern-day Ukraine, Belarus, Southern Russia, and in parts of Poland. Hatas were first built at the end of the first millennium AD. The prototype for the hata had first been built by the mysterious Cucuteni-Trypillian culture. The average hata was about 8-14 arshins (an arshin was an ancient unit of measurement It was about 711.2 millimeters long). long, and about 8-9 arshins wide. The Russian or Ukrainian word hata comes either from the Old Hungarian word for house, ház; or from the Old Iranian word for house, hütte. The word hata doesn't always mean house; it also could stand for any rural dwelling. Around the hata was often planted a garden. A wooden table covered with a tablecloth or towel would stand in a corner opposite the hearth.

An Ukrainian hata. This oil painting was painted in 1880 by Ilia Efimovich Remin. It's now located at the State Museum of Russian Art in Kiev, Ukraine.

The construction of a hata, was different for that of a izba. First, you construed a mound of earth in the future location of your wall. Then, you plant in it a wooden frame. The frame was similar to that of an izba, except that it wasn't made from whole or halved logs. It was made from normal planks. n some communities, the frame was then smeared with a special kind of adobe that was made from red or yellow clay, straw, and...horse poo! Other communities would smear the frame with mixtures containing various ingredients, including grass, soil, chopped straw, clay, reed, wattle, and firewood! Sometimes logs were laid in the frame instead of the clay mixture. Whatever the case, white clay or lime would then be smeared on top to give it a nice color. Communities in Poland and Belarus used mud instead of adobe to make the walls. Later, however, rich folk and town folk began to make the walls with roofing iron and paint it a mixture of white and blue. A necessary item for every hata was shutters, which could be closed to protect its users from the heat. The roof was not as complicated as in the izba; it was simply a hipped thatched roof. The thatched roof, which was made from "snopkami" (tightly bound bundles of straw) or reeds, protected the inhabitants from rain and snow, and provided air conditioning as well. The ceiling was held up by thick beams, which were attached to a long fat wooden pole called a cvolok. On the cvolok, which was often made from oak or linden, was often carved the name of the host and the year of construction. The cvolok could also be decorated with a cross, a carved pattern, or a colored ornament with birds and flowers on it. In the direction of the entrance was sometimes carved religious inscriptions. Rich homes attached fragrant herbs to the cvolok, including basil, kanuper, and oregano. The floor was either an earthen floor or a wooden floor (wooden floors had deep "basements" under them).

There were three parts of a hata. There was the front hata (also called the komora), the back hata (also simply called the hata), and the corridor (also called the sini). The word hata could mean any one of these parts. The hata could also be divided based on usage: the working/ cooking area (hearth, etc.), the ritual area (location of Orthodox icons), also called the pokuttya, and the living area (benches, chest, etc.). The front hata is the one you can see from the street. The back hata overlooked the courtyard in the back of the house. The back hatas contained the Russia pechka or Ukranian groboi (both are different types of ovens). Cossack hatas often had their furnaces and hearths made from glazed tiles. A wall also went through the middle; this wall was made from smearing clay on a wooden or wattle skeleton. You would pass from the front hata to the back hata through a corridor. The outer door, called a ceni, was usually located in the back hata. The various ovens or hearths would also face the back hata.

The front hata had a "cleaner" role, as this was the part of the house where you could relax, place your Orthodox icons, or entertain guests. The icons were set on one of the mother's best embroidered linen towels, and were often decorated with dried flowers; marigolds, cornflowers, carnations, and periwinkles were used.

The back hata was where all the food was prepared. Utensils and food were stored in the hearth's or pechka's furnace when it was not in use; during extremely cold winters, baby cattle could be placed in there too to keep warm. Next to the pechka was kept a fire iron. Sometimes, the part of the back hata closet to the hearth would be fenced off; the result was an early version of the kitchen.

The fireplace or hearth was an important part of the hata. A hata was not considered to be a dwelling place until a fire was burning in the hearth. The hearth stood for the supposed inviolability of the family; it was the family's rallying point and sanctuary (A common Slavic metaphor is derived from this: the family hearth). During courtship and matchmaking, the oven stood as a ritual and ceremonial symbol. After funerals were held next to the hearth, one of the women would pick it, imploring the family talisman to protect them from the dead. In the hearth often lived crickets, which were considered by the Slavs to be the spirits of their ancestors. The Slavs also believed that the domovoi, a house spirit, lived in the hearth. A Slavic proverb echoes this:

"Skazav bi, ta pich u hati" (I would say, but the hearth is in the hata).

The meaning is the same as the English phrase "the walls have ears".

In a hata, all the furniture was always in a defined place. There were two benches in the house; one against the wall, and one under the thick beam holding up the roof. As with the izba, there were no beds; people just slept on the floor. A main piece of furniture was the wood and iron chest. It was owned by one of the women of the house; she would use it even after she got married and moved away. It stored both festive and causal dresses, as well as wreaths, towels, herbs, and jewelry. On top of the chest were small shelves for keeping various trinkets and such.

Once the main construction was done, two or three windows were carved into the brow of the house. The windows had painted shutters, which were lockable only on the outside. In the windows were a cross-shaped piece of wood in the center in which windows were fitted. Just above the floor was carved a small "floor" window. Many hatas also had a small window made above the hearth. The windows as the "eyes" of the house. One book puts in these words:

Windows "link the closed inner space of the immensity of the outside world".

Red tulips with green stems were often painted with oil paints on window and door frames. Two wreaths were often hung of the wall facing the street. The inner walls, doors, windows, oven ledges, and even the doorsteps were painted using blue, yellow, and red paint; these colors were believed to have magical and symbolic importance. Household fabrics and clothes were hung on the walls on poles. On the front door was often planted flowers; these served to provided information on the number of dwellers. Periwinkles stood for women, and a branch with stars stood for men. When a child was born, was painted on the door; when a family member died, a cross was painted. Junctions on the exterior were often often painted. Hatas were often decorated with art of the walls and gables on the roof. Roof ornaments in the shape of a horses's head were often attached to gables. On some houses, a image of a snake would be carved into both sides of the crest of the roof. The snakes symbolized eternity, wisdom, and life. Sometimes the roof's gables would be decorated with large rosettes, which symbolized the sun. They could also be decorated with images of birds and flowers.

Hatas of the wealthy in Poltava and Chernihiv were often spacious, held up by a single wooden pillar, and often included a porch or a stall. The frame of such rich houses was made from oak or pine wood. The interior walls were often covered with linden paneling and decorated with carved welts. The doorposts in these houses had carved designs or were painted. On the floor would be benches with intricately carved backs and carpets laid in rows. In a corner on shelves would be Orthodox icons, historical paintings, and personal portraits. Many hatas had roofed porches in the front.

The three main parts of the hata was supposed to be symbolic to the Trinity. There were also three "levels" of the earth symbolized in a hata. The upper part (the ceiling, etc.) symbolized the sky world. The ceiling beam served as a boundary which evil spirits dared not to cross. The middle part (walls, door, windows, piers, etc) symbolised the "gap" between the heavens and the underworld. The windows and doors symbolized the "ropes" of communication between the two worlds, being the "amulets" of the house. The floor and underground stood for the underworld and Mother Earth.